HARDLY a day goes by when I don’t get stopped by someone in the town or at my workplace for them to tell me of their disgust at nearly being hit by a bicycle on a pavement.

It’s the sheer ignorance, the speed, the lack of manners, no bell and thinking they own the pavement that are the main concerns.

Who is to blame for this problem, I am asked?

Surely it’s still illegal to ride on the pavement as it was in my younger days.

Don’t they read the Highway Code they say? I explain they should report the offender but it seems fear of reprisal or the lack of knowledge of who they should report it to is the problem.

I’ve suggested perhaps they could take a photo on their mobiles but then there’s the human rights – and if it’s a family with kids riding, well that’s even worse trouble you can get in!

I noticed in your newspaper last week that Test Valley Borough Council planning and transport boss Councillor Martin Hatley said: “It is really important that we consult with all users of the cycle network to make sure we hear from commuters as well as leisure cyclists.”

I think Cllr Hatley with his cycle network strategy is indirectly encouraging cyclists to illegally use pavements when a cycle route finishes and I don’t think he is doing enough to protect the walking public, who use these pavements.

Does he not realise how many members of the public this affects?

I think by now everybody knows the route I walk to my work in town, down the Weyhill Road from The Drove, and I can tell you there is no way a cyclist and pedestrian can share this pavement route especially over the railway bridge!

So what, Cllr Hatley, are you going to do to stop cyclists riding illegally on this pavement route? What signs are you going to put up and where? You are happy enough to put up plenty of signs to show cyclists where they can ride, what about where they can’t ride! How about a white cycle sign on the ground with a red line diagonally through it?

Ron Wood, Bridge Street, Andover